Evelyn the Beautiful

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(A.W. Sandberg, DK, 1916)

Evelyn Milton is making her debut as a dancer at the Empire Theatre. A fresh young flower waiting to be plucked, a mere child of 17, she is ignorant of the intrigue of stage life. The greater the chance, then, that she stumbles at her first serious temptation in the dashing figure of billionaire Hugo Hyde. The principal shareholder in the Empire Theatre, he considers it his right to woo the young ladies engaged there. So he is amazed when Evelyn spurns his advances, though that doesn’t stop him for long. When persuasion gets him nowhere, he tries deception and finally lures her into his web.

For the next six months, Evelyn and Hyde go everywhere together. But she doesn’t find happiness and soon they break up. Then Evelyn meets Cecil Gray, who immediately declares his love for her and even breaks with his family to win her. However, he is haunted by the thought that Evelyn used to belong to the lothario Hyde and his hatred of him grows day by day. Evelyn and Grey marry and the wedding party winds up at a music hall. When Hyde walks in, Gray goes mad with rage, snatches a revolver from an actor playing a cowboy and shoots Hyde, though not fatally.

Gray is arrested, but he gets no help from his wealthy father who has disowned him. His mother on her won is unable to raise the 100,000-dollar retainer for a clever defence attorney. Evelyn happens to overhear two jockeys who are planning to rig a race. She borrows 10,000 dollars on her furniture and puts it on the winning horse, but she later loses it all again at the roulette table and is devastated. Then Hyde walks in. He tells her how much he misses her and Evelyn comes up with a desperate plan: if Hyde is willing to put 100,000 dollars on black, and the ball lands on black, she will be his. If the ball lands on red, Evelyn gets the money. This original proposal appeals to Hyde, but he loses. Fate has spoken. Now the attorney can win the case for Gray and the young couple can finally be together.